22-08-2003, 10:44 PM
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Include plants when cycling tank?
tose (LeighMo) wrote:
This may be heresy on this newsgroup, but I actually wouldn't recommend a
planted tank for a total beginner. It adds expense and an extra learning curve
that most people setting up their first tanks don't need. As it is, the vast
majority of people who start keeping tropical fish give up. I'm all for
anything that adds to a newbie's chance of success, including fishless cycling
and powered filters.
I'd have to disagree on more than one point. If you look around on
the net, there's tons of info on setting up and maintaining a planted
tank cheaply. With DIY lighting and CO2, and knowing tricks like
using Profile instead of Fluorite for a substrate, to name one
example, a simple planted tank won't cost that much if any more than a
tank with plastic plants and decorations. Keep in mind that you might
be able to downgrade your power filter capacity while upgrading your
lights, so things like that can offset some cost. Also, I've found
that plastic plants are often more expensive in and of themselves than
buying real plants.
I also don't think that there's all that much more of a learning
curve. Even if they start out with just a bunch of java fern so that
they don't need to add or do _anything_ special to their
tank/hood/pink gravel start-up tank, the concept is the same: plants
can be viewed as biological filtration just like the bacteria in the
filter. Aside from the plantless tank/fishless-cycling subject, start
out with a good filter, some easy plants and a couple little fish in a
typical beginner setup, and you shouldn't have any problems as long as
you maintain it properly and don't overstock.
As for the whole plants-only vs. plants & filter debate, I personally
come down on the side of having both for the majority of people,
especially newbies. If one fails, the other is always there as a
backup, and redundant filtration is never a bad idea.
Plus, if you have any mechanical device creating a water current in a
"filterless" tank, you are actually creating some artificial
biological filtration, because any surface in the path of the water
flow will probably grow an artifically-high amount of nitrifying
bacteria on it (glass, substrate, rocks, plant leaves, etc.) So it's
not really filterless, technically.
See ya,
Kristen
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